Early Morning Ramblings
Aug. 18th, 2004 07:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cabbitzillaIt's ... been a rather blue night. In the midst of all the carnage and chaos going on here, I did what is in essence the burial of a family member. A few months ago, I turned B5MUSH over to another; I'm too old, too worn, and too emotionally involved to be able to continue in any capacity. Three hours of my evening was spent decompiling characters, for myself and my loved ones (Sho, Nemmie, I think I got all of yours, and I've got an un-gutted db in case I missed anyone), clearing mailboxes, nuking alts and specialized room descs.
I'd managed to hold the tears at bay until it came time to strip my office in the Staff Hall. All the years I'd spent fighting to keep her alive, amidst the angst and drama and turmoil and the friendships destroyed. I know of at least six RL relationships that the game destroyed, and almost two dozen staffers left along the road, too burned out to even say goodbye properly. StaffKiller is what the game was referred to... a title it earned time and again. I was crying badly enough that I couldn't even really see when I finally entered the commands to strip things down to bare bones.
I've lost a handful of friends along the way. Stress, psychodrama, and the weight of years ripped up the handful of friends that once helmed the game... the third or fourth such group destroyed. I lasted through two full groups, in the thick of the first one flying apart like a helicopter that's lost a rotor, and watched in horror as the second shattered over rules lawyering and hair splitting. I tried. I did everything I knew how to do. There're several who're LJ friends who're former staffers and players there... a dawg, a blip, miss death-on-a-stick (who also doubled as a commander), a captain and former co-admin, two security chiefs, Miss 'boom tomorrow', a kitty from whom I'm now estranged, and the Voice of Reason might even still be lingering around here. Outside of LJ... there's an orange chucker (long story), a Narn of Honor (you're missed, Moira), what may be the world's best toaster/tin can, Mr Hair (another very long story), a psychocoder whom I -still- worship, and what I'm convinced is -the- best Londo of all time. Centauri, Minbari, and Narns... oh my! Others I remember; security folk who vanished into the mists of time... C&C staff who could always be counted on for amusing roleplay... the often overlooked technical services staff. Seven years of memories for me. Laughter, tears, drama, comedy... storytelling at its purest form, the tales taking flesh from the communal mind of the players. In the mix for me, with my own character, an adopted daughter, a biological daughter, and four separate relationships. I had a family there...
The new headwiz has a new site set up: b5mush.mushpark.com 4205 ... with the advertising blurb to be found HERE. They're targeting for a go-live date of September 1; check out the advertising blurb if you're interested. I wish them luck; maybe by changing location, restarting the timeline, and working off a new codebase will finally shake the demons off that've plagued her. For me... *shakes her head* no. Not me. I've poured blood, sweat, and tears into her; I don't have anything left to give. I've characters on SMT, SPR, and Tapestries that I keep relatively active... the first two are the only real roleplaying online that I do anymore. I'm mildly associated with H^3 (Heaven, Hell, Horses) as an intermediary sitewiz; it operates off a Penn frame in an account I have on a friend's machine, much as B5MUSH did until recently. With things in mid-whirlwind here, I've not had time to read up on the new manuals that the pretty bear sent me, which limits my involvement to watching from the sidelines.
Fara, Frost... I don't know if you'll ever see this or not. I tried. I really did. I... in the end, it was simply too much for me. Several folks I consider family all seem to agree that I held on too long... but at the time there didn't seem to be any other options. Richelieu's creating a new game, using the old name... I hope it avoids the StaffKiller curse. I know it got the two of you, just like it got the Cappy, Commander, dawg, big Sho, and me.
Goodnight, B5. It's been one hell of a ride. I don't regret strapping into the 'fury's pod... I just wish we could've held the line...
I'd managed to hold the tears at bay until it came time to strip my office in the Staff Hall. All the years I'd spent fighting to keep her alive, amidst the angst and drama and turmoil and the friendships destroyed. I know of at least six RL relationships that the game destroyed, and almost two dozen staffers left along the road, too burned out to even say goodbye properly. StaffKiller is what the game was referred to... a title it earned time and again. I was crying badly enough that I couldn't even really see when I finally entered the commands to strip things down to bare bones.
I've lost a handful of friends along the way. Stress, psychodrama, and the weight of years ripped up the handful of friends that once helmed the game... the third or fourth such group destroyed. I lasted through two full groups, in the thick of the first one flying apart like a helicopter that's lost a rotor, and watched in horror as the second shattered over rules lawyering and hair splitting. I tried. I did everything I knew how to do. There're several who're LJ friends who're former staffers and players there... a dawg, a blip, miss death-on-a-stick (who also doubled as a commander), a captain and former co-admin, two security chiefs, Miss 'boom tomorrow', a kitty from whom I'm now estranged, and the Voice of Reason might even still be lingering around here. Outside of LJ... there's an orange chucker (long story), a Narn of Honor (you're missed, Moira), what may be the world's best toaster/tin can, Mr Hair (another very long story), a psychocoder whom I -still- worship, and what I'm convinced is -the- best Londo of all time. Centauri, Minbari, and Narns... oh my! Others I remember; security folk who vanished into the mists of time... C&C staff who could always be counted on for amusing roleplay... the often overlooked technical services staff. Seven years of memories for me. Laughter, tears, drama, comedy... storytelling at its purest form, the tales taking flesh from the communal mind of the players. In the mix for me, with my own character, an adopted daughter, a biological daughter, and four separate relationships. I had a family there...
The new headwiz has a new site set up: b5mush.mushpark.com 4205 ... with the advertising blurb to be found HERE. They're targeting for a go-live date of September 1; check out the advertising blurb if you're interested. I wish them luck; maybe by changing location, restarting the timeline, and working off a new codebase will finally shake the demons off that've plagued her. For me... *shakes her head* no. Not me. I've poured blood, sweat, and tears into her; I don't have anything left to give. I've characters on SMT, SPR, and Tapestries that I keep relatively active... the first two are the only real roleplaying online that I do anymore. I'm mildly associated with H^3 (Heaven, Hell, Horses) as an intermediary sitewiz; it operates off a Penn frame in an account I have on a friend's machine, much as B5MUSH did until recently. With things in mid-whirlwind here, I've not had time to read up on the new manuals that the pretty bear sent me, which limits my involvement to watching from the sidelines.
Fara, Frost... I don't know if you'll ever see this or not. I tried. I really did. I... in the end, it was simply too much for me. Several folks I consider family all seem to agree that I held on too long... but at the time there didn't seem to be any other options. Richelieu's creating a new game, using the old name... I hope it avoids the StaffKiller curse. I know it got the two of you, just like it got the Cappy, Commander, dawg, big Sho, and me.
Goodnight, B5. It's been one hell of a ride. I don't regret strapping into the 'fury's pod... I just wish we could've held the line...
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{{{{HUGS}}}}
Date: 2004-08-18 09:39 pm (UTC)Although it's been a good 2 (more like 3) years since I actually rped on B5 mush, it was definitely my favorite place to roleplay. And it had some of the most fantastic roleplayers in mus*dom, imho! I remember being invited by the person who started it up, way back in '95-96, while it was still being built, before there was any roleplay going on even, helping to build (well, mostly helping to describe!). You're right, it went through so many changes and at times the seas were extremely rough, yet the level of RP was a consistant TOPS. I recall one evening when we were attempting to RP the episode with Jack the Ripper...me on my 386, on a shell account with TF--I kept losing my connection, but we perservered (a HUGE thanks again to those involved there, you know who you are!), finally finishing up around 3:30 am, I believe. Whew! Some of the best scenes, though, were those that happened -spontaneously-, pure off-the-cuff roleplay such as an early-on baseball game (I don't think that ever was saved by anyone, unfortunately!), many of the classic scenes with Londo (my god... you'd be rping with Londo and could just hear that voice!), and any number of scenes between and among the "normal" every day players who populated the station. Because the quality certainly wasn't limited to the FCs--there were innumerable rpers who came up with some very original characters, then played them to the TEE.
Yes it was rough at times, but it was also wonderful and I will certainly cherish the many, many times I had such fun there. I just don't have the "muse" to roleplay right now--to be honest, it wasn't something that I'd ever done before but while I was into it, online, I became obsessed with it to the point where I let it take over my life, but that's another story. I'm still online, but don't participate in mus*ing at all any longer; however, I am glad to have made some great friends through the years I spent on RPGs online and definitely got to explore a side of myself that I didn't know existed. *laughs* I certainly loved to RP!
And Ellie? I still have that CD drive ... do you still have that tape with Star Wars special edition on it?! *wink*
Re: {{{{HUGS}}}}
Date: 2004-08-19 01:34 am (UTC)There are a lot of folks who burned out and vanished along the way. Friends, partners, enemies... at one point Ellie even had an IC sister. So many folks gone. Even the ones I personally didn't care for would show up and give their best... welcome relief from the endless stream of twinks we turned away.
If I had $1 for every half-Vorlon Ranger Telepath that showed up and whined at us, I could pay this house off. I think my personal favorite was the dude that showed up wanting to play a 15yo telepatic pilot with his own spaceship he'd built out of pieces from his IC uncle's junkyard...